Dinner at mine, 17th Jan

Last Saturday night ACC and Baron McG made a long-awaited visit to A du V Towers for dinner.

To start, we had a Felettig double-bill - first this Cremant, which has a little bit of age on it now as it's been residing in my wardrobe cupboard for some time. It made a delightful aperitif for thirsty travellers from the SW2 area.

Then it was on to this Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Beaune 2008, which is showing very well at the moment. It's a wonderful golden colour, and has good weight and richness. I'm very happy with it, and with the fact that I have a further six bottles in storage!

G created two assiettes - one of saucisson with walnuts, procured from the cheese shop, and one of Roka cheese sticks, as no Roka cheese crispies were available in our local supermarket. This was rather aggravating especially after the shortage of Bath Olivers around Christmas and New Year. Waitrose, sort it out! First World Problems, I know.

On to the reds. I'd been saving up this Beaune 1er cru Pertuizots 1971 from Domaine Voiret, for a belated celebration of ACC's birthday. The level was very good and the dreadful label was promising. We know nothing about this domaine and it doesn't appear to be still in existence. But the wine itself was wonderful. and it had that old school power and sweetness. It still had it all going on!

With this we ate a tagine-style stew of lamb cheeks with dried apricots and prunes, and G got his Ottolenghi on and jazzed up some couscous with pomegranate seeds, mint and coriander.

Next up was this bottle of Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru aux Combottes 2007 from Domaine Odoul-Coquard. G went long in 2007 and we're now reaping the benefits. This was just starting to drink but G had "over-decanted" it by giving it 3 hours, and it didn't quite work with the cheese. We will do better next time, not decant it for so long, and eat it with a meaty main course!

It's alive!

I'd made it to Knightsbridge that afternoon to hunt down some ripe cheese which included this excellent Epoisses. It didn't last long...

With pudding we had this Carmes de Rieussec 2005 sauternes provided by ACC, the second wine of Rieussec. It made a very suitable complement to my panettone bread and butter pudding (although memo to self - more custard next time).

Finally, it was on to the remnants of the Marcs de Bourgogne which I brought back from Beaune in November - two Roulots. They were both smashing, in their different ways - the Hors d'Age was fine, rich and powerful, while the 1962 was much lighter, more elegant and even floral by comparison.

Some had apparently been up since the crack of dawn working on a certain En Primeur offer, and so it was time to call it a night. Said offer can be found here and there are many enticing wines to be had. I've spent several days dithering about what to go for this year, but am just about there, and off to order some right now! Bon weekend.

New Year's Eve

Happy new year!

We had an enjoyable evening here on New Year's Eve. ACC joined G and myself and there was a certain amount of vinous indulgence...

We started with some fizz, alongside G's cheese straws which are dangerously moreish. The pile was considerably higher before this photo was taken!

The fizz in question was this 2002 champagne from Castelnau, which I picked up in the cheese shop a couple of months ago. The young man there had been very enthusiastic about it and I succumbed to temptation. I didn't make notes but it went down very well and was pleasantly mature with toasty notes, and for the price (about £40 if memory serves) seemed good value.

To go with our starter, ACC produced a mystery bottle! At least, it would have been a mystery if an identical empty bottle hadn't been sitting in the Hall of Fame above the kitchen cupboards. We had guessed correctly: it was another Batard-Montrachet from Domaine Albert Joly!

Sylvie Prevot-Joly gave us a bottle of the 1990 vintage when we visited her domaine exactly two years ago (blogged about here), whereas this was the 1988. As the 1990 was the best white wine we've ever had, G and I were very excited. I'd struggle to compare them with a gap of 2 years inbetween, but this one was a beautiful golden colour, with mushrooms and honeysuckle on the nose, and had wonderful weight and length. It was absolutely enchanting, and much gratitude to ACC for sharing it with us.

Next, it was on to the claret - a Chateau Latour 1937 which I got at auction at some point. This was very interesting. The cork indicated that it had been re-corked at the chateau in 1964. I'd expected it to have the faded grandeur which the 1943 showed, but not a bit of it, this was still going strong and we all thought it was drinking really well! It was surprisingly fruity, which given that it was 77 years old suggests that it must have been a total monster in its youth. Subsequent research by ACC confirmed that Michael Broadbent was quite rude about it, but it seems he last tasted it 20 years ago.

It had mint and pencil lead but also mocha chocolate, and was generally very vibrant and enjoyable. As usual, it was complex, long and cerebral. Not to be guzzled!

After that, we had some cheeses - mostly a giant hunk of Stitchelton which G had got from Neal's Yard just before Christmas. To go with this, we had a bottle of Corton grand cru les Renardes 2001 from Anne Parent. We'd chilled this slightly to get it to cellar temperature, since the room was quite warm.

I was very happy with this. I bought it a few years ago and had been waiting for a good time to drink it, and it was perfect now. It was very stylish and polished, with good fruit and that Corton musky thing on the nose. I had feared it might be overpowering but that wasn't the case at all, in fact it went down very easily.

Finally, we moved on to some marc de bourgogne. This is one of the bottles that I snapped up in Magnum as related in the previous post - some 1962 from Roulot. It's been a joy to drink.

I've never had an evening before where not one but two bottles have been added to the permanent collection! A great way to start 2015.